Past foes return on immigration

For the past several weeks, conservative critics of a comprehensive immigration bill have remained mostly mum as Senate negotiators privately hammer out a sweeping proposal they want to unveil as soon as next week.

That’s about to change.

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Forces on the right vow to replicate the 2007 effort that led to the demise of George W. Bush’s immigration overhaul, arguing the plan would be too costly and that it would help foreigners and illegal immigrants at the expense of U.S. workers, not to mention eventually providing many with federal benefits. The goal is to stoke enough outrage on the right to dissuade wayward Republicans and moderate Democrats from endorsing the measure.

“I think this is a very high-risk operation and a very dangerous game,” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a leading critic of the effort, told POLITICO Tuesday. “It has the potential to blow sky high and be damaging if they are unable to produce sound policy.”

Groups like the conservative Federation for American Immigration Reform and NumbersUSA are counting on GOP lawmakers to oppose the bill in a big way. So far, many GOP lawmakers have remained mostly quiet, but the groups want them to rally behind lawmakers like Sessions and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz once details of the plan are clear.

FAIR plans to bring 50 conservative talk-show hosts to Washington later this month to pressure lawmakers on an issue they consider “amnesty,” as well as 25 sheriffs who will argue that the border isn’t secure. NumbersUSA is already up with ads going after Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Mark Begich (D-Alaska), and the group expects to target more senators in the coming weeks.

The Heritage Foundation, an influential conservative think tank headed by former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), plans to soon release cost estimates, arguing that federal benefits eventually given to millions of additional green card holders and citizens would worsen the country’s already dire fiscal situation. And the Center for Immigration Studies, a major conservative critic of a comprehensive bill, released a study Tuesday predicting that the government would have to incur an average cost of $2,000 for each immigrant who would be brought into the system.

The biggest prize for conservatives would be to witness Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio abandon the comprehensive effort under mounting pressure from the right.

But given the markedly different political climate following the beating Republicans took from Latino voters in the 2012 elections, it’s unclear whether these critics will gain the same traction six years later. There is much more political momentum behind an overhaul, even among Republicans.